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04/12/2005 Archived Entry: "Forbidden Tulips"

I knew that "broken" tulips (the ones that are multi-colored) are caused by a virus, but I didn't know that Dutch bulb growers are forbidden to grow them because of that. These are the tulips that caused tulipmania in the 1600s -- the broken tulips were highly prized because of their rarity and the fancy patterns on the flowers.

Says Paghat, "The infected bulbs weaken year by year, producing smaller & smaller flowers, & eventually petering out. But, well, many of the highly hybridized standard tulips do that anyway, so it's not a big deal. Old House Gardens claims that the virus is in the main benign, & should be thought of in terms of the microorganisms used to make cheese or sourdough bread. But not many are convinced that tulip-breaking virus (TBV) is benign, & it is a standard recommendation not to grow broken tulips in close proximity to uninfected tulips, as aphids spread TBV from bulb to bulb."